Press Release
ECE/GEN/00/15
Geneva, 26 April 2000
From Plan to Market: the
Transition Process after Ten Years
UN/ECE Spring Seminar
Tuesday, 2 May 2000
(Palais des Nations, Room XIX)
On Tuesday, 2 May 2000,
the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UN/ECE) will hold its Spring Seminar on
the theme: "From plan to market: the transition process after ten years" (see
programme overleaf).
Ten years ago the former centrally planned
economies embarked on the path of economic and political transformation. This has been a
difficult period in which the outcomes not always matched expectations, but it has also
been one of unique and unprecedented experience. Although a decade is not a long historic
period, it is sufficient for drawing some important policy lessons and for a
recapitulation of successes and failures.
The seminar will address issues and topics
such as: what are the main achievements of the ECE transition economies and what are the
greatest disappointments for these countries? Which of the long-run economic targets set
out at the start of transition were met during this decade and which of them were not and
why? In which areas did policy succeed and in which it did not and why; what policy
mistakes were made and what can we learn from them? Why have some countries made
significant progress in the reform process while others are still lagging behind? What are
the causes of the widely diverging patterns of economic performance that can be observed
now? Has there been convergence or divergence in Europe during the past decade, are the
income disparities among the transition economies and between the transition economies and
the rest of Europe diminishing or growing and why? What are the main goals and objectives
of economic policy for the next phase of economic transformation? What are the appropriate
policies and what can the international community do in order to bolster convergence in
Europe? What are the prospects of pan-European economic integration and, in particular, of
the eastern enlargement of the EU?
The Seminar is open to the public.
For further information please contact:
Economic Analysis Division
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UN/ECE)
CH - 1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland
Tel: (+41 22) 917 27 18 - Fax: (+41 22) 917 03 09
E-mail: [email protected], Website: http://www.unece.org/ead/ead_h.htm
From Plan to
Market: the Transition Process after Ten Years
UN/ECE Spring Seminar, Tuesday, 2 May 2000
(Palais des Nations, Room XIX)
Programme
10.00-11.30 hrs
Paper I: From plan to market,
from regime change to sustained growth in central and eastern Europe
(to be chaired by Yves Berthelot, Executive Secretary, ECE)
Author: Ivan Berend (Hungarian Academy of Sciences
and UCLA, Los Angeles)
Discussants: Erik Berglöf (Director of
the Stockholm Institute of Transition Economics and East European Economies (SITE),
Stockholm School of Economics)
Jan Svejnar (Executive Director, William Davidson Institute and Professor,
University of Michigan Business School)
Paul Welfens (Jean Monnet Chair in European Economic Integration, University of
Potsdam)
11.30-13.00 hrs
Paper II: The social costs and
consequences of the transformation process
(to be chaired by Yves Berthelot, Executive Secretary, ECE)
Author: Michael Ellman (Professor, University of
Amsterdam)
Discussants: Alexandru Athanasiu (Professor,
University of Bucharest; Minister of Labour, 1997-1999; Prime Minister ad interim,
December 1999)
Martina Lubyova (Institute for Forecasting, Bratislava)
Alena Nesporova (Senior Specialist, Employment Strategy Department, International
Labour Office, Geneva)
15.00-16.30 hrs
Paper III: Macroeconomic policies
and achievements in transition economies, 1989-1999 (to be chaired by Paul Rayment,
Director, EAD/ECE)
Author: Stanislaw Gomulka (London School of
Economics and Adviser to Minister of Finance, Poland)
Discussants: George Kopits (Assistant Director,
Fiscal Policy Dept., IMF, Washington)
Sylvana Malle (Head, Non-Member Economies Division, OECD, Paris)
Joze Mencinger (Professor, Ekonomski Institut Pravne Fakultete, Ljubljana)
16.30-18.00 hrs
Paper IV: Structural change in
the transition economies since 1989
(to be chaired by Danuta Hübner, Deputy Executive
Secretary, ECE)
Author: Michael Landesmann (Research Director,
WIIW, Vienna)
Discussants: Leonid Grigoriev (Director General,
Bureau of Economic Analysis, Moscow)
Paul Hare (Professor, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh)
Andras Nagy (Professor, Institute of Economics, Budapest)
For further information please contact:
Economic Analysis Division
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UN/ECE)
Palais des Nations
CH - 1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland
Tel: (+41 22) 917 27 18
Fax: (+41 22) 917 03 09
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: http://www.unece.org/ead/ead_h.htm
In order to provide you with a better service, we would appreciate it if you
would send a copy of your article to: Information Unit, United
Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UN/ECE), Palais des Nations, Room 356, CH - 1211
Geneva 10, Switzerland,
Tel: +(41 22) 917 44 44, Fax: +(41 22) 917
05 05, E-mail: [email protected],
Thank you. |